Last week I watched a six part show called Moon Machines. As a child of the Apollo Program, the show brought many cherished memories. We ate, breathed, drank and enjoyed anything related to the race for the moon.
I also found myself getting mad because apparently we no longer have that drive to do the “impossible” anymore. Watching the episode The Lunar Rover, I was reminded of a little tidbit of information that really ticked me off and produced the pic below.
[sigh]
And it had lawn chairs for seats!
Apollo 18 anyone? (no, not the movie)
If you don’t mind I’m stealing this.
The rover was actually built by Boeing, not GM.
You better tell NASA. that is what the engineers there say. Boeing helped.
Boeing was prime contractor, GM did the motors. Rover was assembled in the Boeing Huntsville plant. That info is searchable.
Quoting one of several articles:
“Boeing and its chief subcontractor, General Motors, moved with amazing speed in the design, testing and production of the LRV. The first LRV was evaluated by NASA at Boeing’s Washington facility and approved for shipment to KSC two months ahead of schedule.”
http://www.thespacereview.com/article/127/1
About 2:00
Sam Romano
Lunar Rover Program Manager 69-73
General Motors Defense Research Laboratory
Ferenc Pavlics
Lunar Rover Chief Engineer
General Motors Defense Research Laboratory
Mr. Pavlics still has the original remote control model used to demonstrate the viability of the concept presented to NASA…and the thing still works.